35 Simple Indoor Summer Activities to do with Young Children
Summer can be a hard adjustment for families. Sometimes, having large, open stretches of time to fill is intimidating, and many parents want to keep their kids from spending the whole summer on screens, especially if the weather isn’t ideal. If that’s your situation, you need some simple, indoor summer activities.
And the good news is, there are endless simple, indoor summer activities to provide fun, educational, and creative ways for young kids to fill their time even INSIDE!
Our family is currently in the thick of summer here in the Southern Hemisphere. And I am amazed at how busy our kids keep themselves playing the vast majority of the day.
This post includes a variety of indoor activities that we have enjoyed this summer. Some require a bit of set up or help from a parent to get going. But overall, this list is heavily focused on encouraging self-direction, creativity, and independent play.
These indoor summer activities provide rich opportunity for developing life skills, sparking creativity, and keeping kids’ brains active in a healthy and balanced way.
I am a big fan of maintaining some flexible rhythms and routines, even in summer, and this post is part of my series focusing on a simple summer. If you’d like more ideas about how to incorporate intentional simplicity into your daily summer routine, or your weekly summer routine, I’ve got you covered!
And I also have follow up posts with ideas for simple OUTDOOR summer activities at home and OUT AND ABOUT summer activities (away from home) to help give ideas to engage in screen-free fun outside!
Or if you’re trying to find your rhythm with taking a weekly Sabbath in the summer or looking for ideas on what to make for dinner in the summer, I’ve also got suggestions for you.
Let’s dive in to these indoor summer activities!
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Why Do We Need Indoor, Simple, Screen-Free Summer Activities?
This list of indoor summer activities is a great place to start if the weather outside isn’t ideal for outdoor play. Maybe it is too hot, or maybe you are experiencing an unexpected rainy day. Or maybe you don’t have a lot of outdoor space to send kids to play.
Either way, this collection will definitely provide you with some great indoor, screen-free summer activities!
You can set out a few stations to see if the kids migrate toward something, or you can give some options to the kids and let them choose before you set stuff out.
Alternatively, set up your home so the kids have access to many supplies for these activities, such as arts and craft supplies. Although it can mean the house gets a bit more messy, I’ve found my kids love having the independence and liberty to access supplies for creative and self-directed simple indoor summer activities.
Crafting Ideas (Simple Indoor Summer Activities 1-5)
Provide white printer paper, scissors, scotch tape, glue, and washable markers or colored pencils, and let the kids get creative! Some ideas for directing their crafting expression include:
1. Make a card to send to a grandparent via snail mail
2. Create your own personal zoo by building paper animals
3. Staple together a couple pieces of paper into a little booklet, color a beautiful front and back cover, and then create a nature journal to record all the animals or plants of interest for a week
4. Decorate for a summer holiday (4th of July, or summer birthday)
5. Create paper “baskets” by folding the paper in half and stapling up each side, and then write notes of encouragement for friends or neighbors. Or make coupons for family members to gift to each other, such as “one 3-minute back rub” or “good for one of your chores”
Supplies Needed: white printer paper, scissors, scotch tape, glue, washable markers or colored pencils, envelope and stamp, stapler
Coloring and Painting (Activities 6-12)
If you’d rather your kids not have access to scissors, or you’re out of scotch tape, you can still utilize coloring items to keep the simple indoor summer activities rolling!
6. Color in coloring books (this is our favorite coloring book!)
7. Draw something from nature
8. Color a picture using only 3 colors
9. Paint whatever you want with watercolor paint
10. Paint your favorite animal
11. Choose some rocks to paint
12. Color by number
13. Paint by number
Supplies Needed: colored pencils or crayons or washable markers, coloring book, watercolor paint and paintbrush, rocks, Color by Number book or free, printable pages online, Paint by Number kits or regular watercolor paint and some paint by number pages
Playing with Open-Ended Toys (Indoor Summer Activities 14-19)
Our toys are primarily open ended toys, and I’m always amazed at how the kids play with them in so many different ways! Reminding your kids of their toys and letting them enjoy them with a little more direction can be a good starting point for some indoor summer activities and fun.
An open ended toy is a toy that has a wide range of ways that it can be used – it isn’t limited to just one function. Often, kids will mix and match open ended toys – such as dolls + MagnaTiles, or animal figurines + Duplo.
I’ll list out some scenarios that our kids like to play, but really, the whole concept is that these are open ended, so these might be great starting points, but then let your kids free with them and see what they come up with!
14. Build a farm yard for animals from MagnaTiles
15. Build a doll house from Duplo
16. Pretend play a coffee shop with stacking cups and MagnaTiles and felt balls
17. Build a road for cars with MagnaTiles
18. Take your dolls to a hot pool (ie: the bathroom sink or a bowl of warm water)
19. Take turns playing hide-and-seek with your Magnetic Figurines
Supplies Needed: farm animals, MagnaTiles, Duplo, stacking cups, felt balls, cars, dolls, magnetic figurines
Books, Read-Alouds, and Audiobooks (Activities 20-23)
Good stories are just great for the soul! And they make a wonderful option for simple indoor summer activities.
Giving our kids access to good stories is, in my opinion, one of the best ways we can enrich their lives, grow their character, and develop their imagination. And it’s a fun way to build a shared culture and community in our homes, too.
20. Read one chapter per day of a chapter book aloud to your kids
21. If your kids can read, let them pick out some books at the library to bring home to enjoy
22. Even if your kids can’t read, grab a bunch of beautiful picture books from the library that have things your kids are interested in – my toddler son loves to look at Richard Scarry books and admire all the cars, and my pre-reader daughter enjoys flipping through our Usborn Book of World History.
23. Check out some audiobooks from the library
Recommended Books: There are heaps of great book lists out there, and I’ll probably write up a post about our favorite books soon, but these are some top hitters in our family:
Easy chapter books for early readers to read on their own:
- A Llama in the Family and other books by Johanna Hurwitz
- Gooney Bird Greene and other books by Lois Lowry
- Lumber Camp Library
- Amelia Bedelia Series
- Fancy Nancy Series
Engaging Read Aloud Chapter Books:
- The Green Ember Series by S.D. Smith
- The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman
- The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare (and other books by this author)
- The Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild
- The Railway Children by by Edith Nesbit
- The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
- The Old American Girl Books (Felicity, Kirsten, Addy, Kaya, Samantha, Molly, etc)
- The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
Puzzles and Activity Books (Indoor Summer Activities 24-26)
We have a handful of puzzles and activity books for kids that I like to pull out and leave on the table every so often. They’re great indoor summer activities for when the kids are extra tired, since they are more of a laid-out-for-you option and a little less open ended.
24. Puzzles (floor puzzles, wooden puzzles, and regular cardboard in ones. We’re still in the fourty-eight to sixty piece range with the girls, but if I do one with them, we can go all the way up to 100 pieces)
25. Paint by Sticker (this is a new activity for us, gifted to the girls by their Aunt Tabitha, and they have really enjoyed it!
26. Activity Books (Maze books, Word Search, Logic Puzzles, Diverse Activities, etc)
Supplies Needed: puzzles, paint by sticker book, activity books
Card Games and Board Games (Activities 27-29)
We play a lot of card games with our kids these days, since they are usually relatively quick to play and they make a great evening activity to do together once everyone is ready for bed. But they’re also a fantastic simple, indoor summer activity when you need to direct them to something to keep their brains engaged and their bodies a little more still.
I’ll list some categories of games, and then list our favorite resources if you’re looking to expand your collection.
27. Game-specific card games
28. Regular Deck-of-Cards Card Games
29. Board Games
Some of our favorite game-specific card games are:
- Sleeping Queens
- Gnoming Around
- Nuts About Mutts
- Bears and Bees
- Slapzi (great for a crowd, can be easy to play with pre-readers)
- Memory (great for younger kids)
Some of our favorite regular Deck-of-Cards Games favorites:
- Solitaire (also known as Klondike or Patience) which can also be played as a doubles version
- Solitaire Clock
- Trash
- Speed
- Nerts (Racing Demons for my UK Friends)
- War
Some Board Games We Enjoy:
Baking or Cooking Together (Indoor Summer Activities 30-33)
Baking or cooking with the kids requires a bit of patience and setting my own expectations in a reasonable place (ie: there WILL be messes!), but if I can relax into the process, I enjoy it! And the kids seem to ALWAYS enjoy it, as long as I’m not grumpy or stressed!
I also love that getting kids into the kitchen helps to develop real-life skills. Measuring, pouring, cracking eggs, mixing, and having patience while things bake or freeze are all things that they really will need to do in their life at some point.
And having kids familiar with how to do things in the kitchen foster independence and helps them grow in capabilities. It’s a win almost all the way around (except for the clean up aspect! But I suppose that’s a learning opportunity too!)
30. Bake cookies together (our favorites are Oatmeal Chocolate Chip!)
31. Teach your kids how to make breakfast (we’ve just taught our eldest to make our Swedish Sheet Pan Pancakes. We help her with getting the pans in and out of the oven, but otherwise she can do almost the whole thing herself)
32. Make a no-bake, frozen treat, such yogurt bark or popsicles. Or keep it really simple and have them help you wash, dry, and lay out grapes or blueberries on a cookie sheet to freeze for little popsicle bites
33. Mix things up for a fun learning experience and have your kids make their own butter in a jar out of whipping cream.
Supplies Needed: ingredients for baking cookies, ingredients for making breakfast, ingredients for popsicles or frozen yogurt bark, heavy whipping cream for butter
Making Forts or Obstacle Courses (Activities 34-35)
I can’t say forts or obstacle courses inside are common choices for us because we live in a small house, so doing either of these activities seems to dominate the whole house! But I keep these options on reserve for indoor summer activities when we need a real change of pace.
The benefits of creating a fort or obstacle course is that it tends to bring all the kids together to collaboratively work on a project. Also, since it is such a physical activity (setting up the fort and doing the obstacle course), it usually helps burn off a little energy!
34. Build a fort (under the table, between the table and the couch, etc)
35. Create an obstacle course (we do a lot of jumping over pillows at our house!)
Supplies Needed: blankets, furniture, pillows, and these clamps are handy
Make the Most of Screen-Free Summer with Simple Indoor Activities and Fun
Summer is the perfect time to unplug and enjoy simple, screen-free indoor activities that spark creativity, build lasting memories, and keep kids engaged in healthy, imaginative play. We’ve enjoyed developing our repertoire of simple summer indoor activities, and we hope this list inspires you, too!
Whether you’re crafting, reading, baking, or engaging in imaginative play, I believe these activities offer something for every child to enjoy. Plus, many of these activities don’t require a lot of materials, making it easy to jump in and have fun without any hassle!
What are your favorite screen-free activities to do with your kids? Let us know in the comments below! If you’re looking for more simple summer activities to do outside, then you can check out my follow up post to this one about outdoor summer activities (coming soon).
And if you found this list helpful, be sure to share it with other parents who might be looking for ideas to keep their little ones entertained all summer long.
